In Dreams Unspoken
by UnfairestOfThemAll
Summary: In which Regina and Snow White have a therapy session.


"Every day that I saw you grow into a more fearsome, cruel, violent and distressed woman I knew what I wished for." Snow said choking on a throat full of feelings and words never expressed. "Some days you were so distant I wished you had let me die on that horse."

The air was wrought with intensity as tears streamed down the former step-daughters plump face. Her words an unknown echo of the past. Of days Regina had never known she had felt the chill between them as she had aged.

"Why did you say nothing?" Regina inquired

Snow nearly choked between the laughter and tears. "Oh Regina, you know why. You weren't able to see beyond your own pain. I saw that too. I didn't always understand it at the time, looking back it seems so clear."

She reached out and was granted permission to hold Regina's hand.

"Why do you feel like you wanted her to let you die on that horse?" Archie could not contain the surprise that colored his and Regina's faces.

Dabbing her eyes, Snow's voice was small. "Regina was my hero. She was everything I wanted to be. Everything my Mother had led me to believe was important. Selfless, self-assured kind, intelligent, beautiful, warm the list went on and on really. If I could grow up to be half of what she was surely my Mother would have been so proud."

Archie and Regina exchanged glances at this look in Snow's eyes and the small sound of her voice.

"Did you know the phrase; I will always find you originated from her?" Snow inquired aloud.

"No. I had no idea." Archie stated as Snow glanced around the room.

"It did. I was escaping the castle a very self-absorbed naïve Princess. For the first time in my life I was truly alone. I had no money and only the clothes I could stuff into a backpack. I don't have to let you know the dangers of being a young woman on her own in the words could have brought. That isn't what kept me up at night."

"What if you hadn't ran?" Regina asked quietly. "Hmm? There would be no David, no Emma & no…"

"Henry." Snow finished, tears threatening anew. "You unknowingly provided us both with the most important people in our lives."

"Why did you want to die Snow?"

This was an answer Regina could not wait for. She had to know the unknowable.

"I saw what saving me had cost you. Every time you became that cold, cruel, nothing can hurt me part of you I lost a little piece of my hero that I could never get back."

"I was never meant to be a hero Dear."

"You were always meant to be a hero." Snow said through tears. "Mine, Emma's, Henry's, everyone's. I added Evil to your name."

The oxygen felt as if it were about to caught fire in the room with the final outburst.

"If." Regina tasted her words slowly, "I had let you die I would not have been able to experience the best parts of myself. Everything that I sacrificed to build this life, for us to build this life together may not have felt worth it. I did unspeakable things to so many people out of anger, rage and frustration. There are so many things I can never fully atone for. It got me my son."

Finally, a tear fell, "He made me a hundred times the woman I was meant to be. So don't you dare tell me I should have let you die on that horse. You don't get to take the easy way out Snow White. "

"I still see my hero Regina." Snow admitted bashfully.

After bringing out a compact Regina checked her make up in the mirror and dabbed at her own tears. "Well I for one had been enough in my feelings in these past few minutes. Drinks dear?"

"Can I finally have some of your famous cider? I've been dying for a taste."

Both women shook the good doctors hand with Snow White in tow of the former Queen.

"Must you keep saying that word?"

"Can I?"

Regina arched an eyebrow, "May I? Are you or are you not a school teacher?"

The younger actually chuckled a bit, "May I have some of your cider Regina? To what word are you referring?"

"You may. Dying. No one is dying today. "

"I shall cease at once."

All who passed the women on Main street did double takes. Walking hand in hand were Snow White and the Former Evil Queen turned Mayor. Passing right by Granny's, Henry and Emma looked at each other before dropping their burgers and guzzling their shakes down to step outside.

"Another curse?" Henry asked in complete confusion.

"I have no idea Kid."


End file.
